Why blanket bail to ex-DGP was never challenged, Sidhu asks Punjab govt

Chandigarh: Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday once again questioned his party’s government in the state, asking why it did not move the apex court against the blanket bail given to former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini by the state high court. He also took a dig at his predecessor Sunil Jakhar, saying he never raised the issue and inviting a sarcastic reply on Twitter from him. Saini figures as an accused in the case involving the police firing on people protesting the desecration of Guru Granth Sahib in Punjab’s Faridkot district in 2015. Speaking to reporters in Amritsar, Sidhu questioned the government over the steps taken in desecration cases and not making public the STF report on the drug issue. “I keep giving reminders regularly. What is my interest? Yesterday, I said this from the stage (in Moga). The earlier president keeps tweeting but did he ever raise these issues? Sidhu asked taking a swipe at Jakhar. Jakhar responded with a couplet, which means the “idol” is calling him an “infidel”. Sidhu said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ordered the completion of the probe into the Kotkapura police firing incident, preferably within six months but the deadline has already passed. Why no special leave petition was filed against the blanket bail to Saini, one of the accused in the police firing incidents, he asked. “If that accused has got a blanket bail, how will the investigation be completed?” he questioned. “Everyone including me asks what is the government’s intent. If Saini got a blanket bail (by the high court), did you file an SLP? On September 10, he got a blanket bail, was the SLP filed against it?” he asked. On the special task force report on drugs, he asked the state government who stopped it from making it public. He asserted that he always appreciates any good work done by the state government. Replying to a question, Sidhu asserted that there is good coordination between the party and the state government though, he added, he would keep raising public issues. Sidhu said he had talked about a reduction in power, fuel and sand prices, which have now been lowered. The BJP took a dig at the Congress, saying Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and PCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu have made “a tamasha” of the entire state. It has always been clear that Channi and Sidhu are not on the same page because of their conflict of interests but it is a shame that in the process they have made Punjab an ugly stage of political gimmicks, BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh said in a statement. Chugh alleged that the AAP and the Akali Dal were also doing the same to the state. “Instead of making sensible statements and promises to the people, they are ridiculing people of Punjab by making false and baseless promises,” he said. Chugh said the way Channi and Sidhu have been working at cross purposes indicated that the Congress high command has no idea how a sensitive border state like Punjab has been handed over to political tamashbeens” (onlookers). The Punjab and Haryana High Court had quashed in April the Punjab Police SIT probe into the 2015 Kotkapura firing incident. The probe was conducted by an SIT team headed by the then IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who later took premature retirement. Following the order, a new special investigation team was formed on May 7 this year. The new SIT was led by Additional Director General of Police L K Yadav. The state had witnessed the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent police firing on people protesting the desecration in Faridkot in 2015. One incident of police firing had taken place at Kotkapura and second at Behbal Kalan in Faridkot.